Humming
Time needed: 1–2 minutes
Materials: Your voice
How to take this dose: When you feel ready, take a steady inhale. As you start to exhale, you might like to bring your lips together and ever so gently begin to make a humming sound. You can explore this sound all the way to the end of the exhalation, then repeat as many times as you choose.
Perhaps you notice the sensation of your lips vibrating with the sound. Maybe you feel the sense of your belly moving as you breathe.
As you hum, you can play with volume, and maybe even bring some spontaneous melody to the sound of your humming. Or you can use a more meditative, repetitive sound that allows you to unwind into the repetition. You choose.
Benefits: This activity is perfect for when you need to settle your system but need to stay where you are so can’t move around much. It’s for when you’re thinking more than feels helpful and need to take a little pause but don’t have long. It’s for when you’re not sure what to do to help soothe yourself.
When you hum, you invite the activation of the innate rest/digest response in your nervous system. This is likely (at least in part) because it’s the opposite of how when we’re under threat we breathe quickly to help fuel the fight/flight response.
So when you breathe slowly on the exhale while humming or singing, you teach your nervous system that it’s safe to unwind.
The rhythmic nature of humming to the cycle of the breath can help to re-establish a sense of connection to natural rhythms, from which we can easily become disconnected amidst the frenetic pace of everyday life.
This exercise can be layered with other creative practices to support mindfulness.
Best of all, because you always have your body with you, you can hum or play with your voice any time.
Draw yourself as a dwelling
Time needed: Start with 10 minutes
Materials: A comfy spot, a piece of paper, something to draw with (coloured pencils, charcoal, watercolours or markers)
How to take this dose: Take a moment to consider this question: If you were a dwelling right now, what would you be? A log cabin? A tent? A castle, fiercely protected? A hammock under a shady tree? A leaky boat?
If it’s helpful, set a timer for 10 minutes. Draw your dwelling. Include any details you find enjoyable to spend time on. Once the timer goes off, or you’re happy with it, look at your creation.
Benefits: Drawing lowers our cortisol and regulates our nervous system. This practice can be a useful reminder that we can create places of safekeeping for ourselves. It can help us to remember that we are always changing and that feelings pass.
Our dwelling today will likely look completely different tomorrow.
Making pompoms
Time needed: 10 minutes
Materials: Wool, scissors
How to take this dose: This practice is portable – you can do it anywhere, any time you need to keep your hands busy. It’s addictive and simple.
Take the end of a ball of yarn and start winding it around four of your fingers, securing the end with your thumb. Keep winding the yarn around your four fingers at least 30 times, or as many times as you like – the more you wind, the thicker the pompom will be. Make sure you don’t wind too tightly.
Snip the end of the yarn to release it from the ball.
Carefully slide the bundle of yarn off your fingers so that it stays together.
Cut a piece of yarn about 4-6in long. Wrap around the middle of your bundle, as if you’re tying a ribbon on a gift, and tie it once on the top of your bundle, then once on the bottom of your bundle.
You should now have a tightly knotted bundle of yarn loops. Carefully cut through the loops at each end of the bundle.
To finish, trim your pompom to neaten up the ends. You can either trim the longest piece of yarn that remains, or use it to tie your pompom to something. Repeat as many times as you like to make several pompoms.
You can hang a bunch of coloured pompoms anywhere to bring a small moment of joy – your car’s rear-view mirror, in a kid’s bedroom or beside the kitchen window.
Benefits: Keeping our hands busy helps promote a calm mind. The repetitive nature of this kind of practice has been proven to release serotonin, the key hormone in stabilising our mood, feelings of wellbeing, and happiness – it’s a natural antidepressant.
The repetitive movement also acts as a meditation, bringing a sense of mindfulness and propelling us into that zone of flow, calming our mind and body.
